CORPUS-BASED TRANSLATION STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY

This presentation aims to investigate the perceptions of a group of students attending a course on corpus-based translation studies at the University of Urbino, Italy. The hands-on course introduced students to corpus linguistics theory and the use of corpora to carry out technical translations.

The data for the study have been collected through online questionnaires that students filled in after each lesson and after completing the final assignment. The questionnaires aimed to guide students to reflect on their use of corpora and the emotions they went through while transitioning from a prescriptive to a descriptive view of language. The analysis of the data collected showed students’ increasing mastering of the various corpus tools including the most difficult ones; the more students used corpora while working in pairs and small groups, the more surprised they were of how effectively they could carry out technical translations from Italian into English just relying on the use of corpora.

The results of the present study may be used to implement similar courses in other higher education settings.